Scheduling repairs, passing time

I learned today that my diagnosis of a faulty reefer alternator is likely correct. Learned when a reefer dealer made the same diagnosis.

Diane and I woke up this morning in a retail area in Greater Los Angeles. We went there last night to sleep after yesterday’s load canceled. We drove this morning to the TA East truck stop in Ontario, Calif., to shower and wait for freight.

A good load offer was received and accepted this morning. It’s actually a very, very good load offer but the good feeling that would normally come with such an offer is offset by the load we just came off, which resulted in two days of truck ordered but not used and unknown pay so far. Also, the load does not pick up until Monday, which means little or no money will be made this week. That’s not as bad as it sounds. Again, the offer we accepted today is very good.

Let’s hope that load actually ships. It is involves a long deadhead, the miles of which are fully paid so the deadhead is OK. But anytime you put time between you and the next pick up, you increase the chances that something will develop and the load will cancel. Canceled loads happen far less frequently at Landstar Express America than they did at our former carrier. But when you get burned by one, all others come back to mind, whatever carrier they happened with.

The new run is a reefer run and our reefer is in need of repair. Having plenty of time to get it fixed, we went to the Carrier Transicold dealer in Fontana. The mechanic agreed that a new alternator was needed. One was ordered and we will return tomorrow to have it installed.

We returned to the TA to spend the night. Last time we were here, security told us that a new permit system had been established and we needed one to park in the front lot. This time we saw no permits on any of the expediter trucks and the same security guard who told us about the permits last time seemed to be letting it go this time. We did not push it, and no security guard on any shift bothered us about getting a permit.